Paul Rawlings: Anything I need to do to win

Saturday

Sep 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Republicans have a habit of saying anything to win

Paul Rawlings

On August 15, 2013 New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie appeared before the Republican National Committee summer meeting in Boston and made a speech that many believe was the announcement of his candidacy for president in the 2016 Republican primary.

Christie told the RNC “I am going to do ANYTHING I need to do TO WIN. I think we have some folks who think we have to be college professors. For our ideas TO WIN we have to govern. And if we don’t WIN we don’t govern. There is nothing wrong with our party. We should focus entirely on the mechanics of electing Republicans. We are a political operation that wants TO WIN.”.

Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Texas Republican Party summarized Christie’s remarks as follows: “I took all that to mean, I’m going to run in 2016, and I’ve demonstrated a winning formula. And if you want to WIN and don’t care about ideology, I’m your candidate.”

Many Republicans in the 2012 Republican presidential primary said Mitt Romney “would say anything to WIN,” including Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum. So Christie’s pledge “to do ANYTHING I need to do TO WIN” is following in Romney’s footsteps—the Republican nominee in 2012.

On August 16, 2013 the Republican National Committee voted unanimously to ban CNN and NBC from participating in the Republican 2016 presidential primary. Christie went a step further and said “Republicans should not have debates within the party over foreign policy, social issues and legislative tactics.”

If Republicans do not participate in any debates, or only a few, how will voters know the Republican position on the issues?

Christie in a jab at another potential 2016 presidential candidate, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said “I am not going to be one of those people who are going to call our party stupid. I’m not going to be one of those people who are navel gazing.”

Last month Christie said Rand Paul, another potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate’s, criticism of the government’s surveillance programs was “dangerous and part of an esoteric, intellectual debate.”

Obviously Christie is willing to SAY ANYTHING about his fellow Republicans needed to WIN.

Christie said “We have an opportunity as a party to drive a wedge in the union movement. And the laboratory where that is happening right now is in my state.”

A continuation of the Republican divide and conquer politics of the last 50 years.

Karl Rove, the most successful Republican political consultant for the last 30 years believes Republicans have lost a number of races (such as the Todd Akin race in Missouri and the Richard Mourdock race in Indiana) “because the wrong candidates were selected.” Rove has formed The Conservative Victory Project which will intensely vet prospective Republican contenders for congressional races to weed out candidates who The Conservative Victory Project believe is too flawed to WIN general elections.

So anyone who wishes to be a candidate in certain Republican races must first pass the Karl Rove WIN test.

Eric Cantor, Republican majority leader in the House revealed why Republicans “will do or say anything to WIN” in this statement: “Look we screwed up when we were in the majority….We fell in love with POWER.” Yes POWER.

It appears Republicans love of POWER in 2016 will cause them to focus on candidates who will DO ANYTHING they need to do to WIN.

Check closely in 2016 and see if you can find candidates who promise:

“I will do anything I need to do TO reduce the number of people living in poverty, TO reduce the number of unemployed, TO reduce the gap between the wages of workers and CEO’s, TO solve the immigration problem, TO provide adequate health care for all Americans, TO reduce the number of people killed with guns, TO provide for the common good not a select few.

(Paul Rawlings of Heber Springs contributes monthly to the editorial pages of The Sun-Times)